New Blues & Soul News – 3/24/2016
New Blues & Soul News – 3/26/2016
New Blues Adds:
Brothers Brown – Dusty Road (Funky Joint): Here’s a new group led by two Paul Browns, both songwriters, singers and producers (one a guitarist based in Nashville and the other a keyboard player based in LA). The rhythm section includes bassist David Santos, who has worked with Billy Joel, Elton John, and John Fogerty and drummer Pete Young, who has toured with Loretta Lynn and the Burrito Brothers, among others. The music is a mixture of country soul and bluesy rock & roll. Kinda laid back, straight forward, roots music that should appeal to a variety of tastes. They do cut a solid laid-back groove. Click here to listen to a sample.
Peter Karp – The Arson’s Match (Self-released): Karp is a singer/songwriter/guitarist/pianist who began performing as a teenager in New York with “They Came from Houses”, a genre-mixing art-blues-punk band. They attracted some attention, but Karp became more interested in production so he left the group. He returned to performing in the late 90’s with The Roadshow Band. They cut a couple of records live and this disc is Karp’s picks as the best performances form them. In addition to Karp on guitar, piano, and vocals, the band members included Dennis Gruenling (harmonica), Jim Ehinger (keyboards), Daniel Pagdon (bass), Paul “Hernandez” Unsworth (drums) and special guest Mick Taylor (yes, of the Rolling Stones). Karp wrote all of the songs. The style is blue rock, more rock than blues. The highlights occur unsurprisingly when Taylor is playing and when Gruenling is turning it loose on harmonica. Most recently, Karp has been playing with Sue Foley. Click here to listen to samples of the songs on this disc.
King Edward – 50 Years Of Blues (Hit The Road Records): King Edward Antoine’s music has been described as “Traditional Mississippi blues,with a taste of Chicago, spices from Louisiana, and some soul and rhythm’n blues thrown in…. Today, the guitarist leads his own band, the King Edward Band, and also performs duo and solo acoustic acts.” (from his website) The base of his sound is old style Mississippi Delta blues like Muddy, et.al. with a electric base. The music here does certainly recall that sound, with King Edward singing and on electric guitar (but not slide) supported by Doug Lancio (electric guitar), Oteil Burbridge (bass), and Marco Giovino (drums). King’s vocals also have that declarative and sometimes droning sound. Four of the songs were co-wriiten by King, but they don’t match Muddy and company’s depth and intensity. Nonetheless, this is a sound that is rarely heard outside of bars and juke joints. Click here to listen to the opening song on this disc (an original King composition).
J.T. Watkins – Blues You Can Use (Arrow Heart): Soul blues and Jackson, MS go together oh so well! This disc is basically a “Best of…” collection recorded and released by Arrow Heart Records in Jackson. This is the real thing – bluesy in a soulful music bed with REAL instruments. Sure, it has uptown intentions, but none of the pretensions of most current synth drowned, plastic smoothness. The base group includes Norman Dark, Carl Marshall, and Tommie C. Carter (guitar), Carl Marshall, Harrison Calloway, and Ron Evans (bass), and unnamed drums, etc. The program here takes us right up to and, at times, across the border to “synth-land” (the home of possibly good soul songs turned into plastic). BTW, Watkins wrote or co-wrote all but one of these songs. Click here to listen to the opening song on this disc.
New Soul Adds:
Blues Mix 19 – Various Artists (Ecko): Ecko’s latest blues mix of their special brand of soul blues, featuring Ms Jody, Jaye Hammer, Donny Ray, and O.B. Buchana, among others who record for Ecko (Memphis). This is uptown soul blues with traces of disco, meaning that there is often a base representation of synth or electronic background to keep the soul groove dance crowd bumping and jumping. Click here to listen to samples of songs on this disc.
Kopasetically,
Professor Bebop
